Business booms for fledgling co.

AUSTIN, Texas - Within a few months of winning the best new product of the year award at ISC West, CoVi Technologies’ business has taken off, prompting the camera manufacturer to move to a larger facility that can accommodate its growth. The company doubled the size of its office here in July to 20,000 square feet by moving to a facility across town. In six months, CoVi Technologies also hired 14 additional employees in its sales and marketing, engineering and customer support departments to bring its workforce to 55. Barry Walker, one of seven founders of the young company and its president, does not expect the growth to slow down anytime soon. Its first product to hit the market, the EVQ1000, sold out and the company is working off a backlog to fulfill orders. “I think we’ve broken the code on the quality barrier for video surveillance,” said Walker. According to Walker, CoVi Technologies’ product is different than other cameras in the market since it uses a high-definition sensor. By using HDTV technology, the company offers an analog camera with a quality image but at a reasonable price. The company’s approach in the camera market, one of the most saturated sectors of the security industry, appears to be well received. It’s not just those placing orders for the product that like what they see, but the venture capital community, as well. A year after its launch, CoVi Technologies secured $16 million in a Series A round of financing. It ranked in the seventh percentile for one of the largest Series  A  financings last year,  according to Walker. Walker expects the funds will go far for CoVi, which operates an office in Hong Kong and plans to open one in the United Kingdom in January. The company intends to launch a pan, tilt, zoom version of its EVQ1000 in 2005. Walker declined to release details, but said several other new products are also in the works. “We expect to continue to grow,” he said. “This is a very big marketplace globally, and we think we’re bringing a product with a lot of functionality for its price.”